Peaches can grow pretty well in the Denver region. Elberta and Red Haven both do well. I just planted a peach tree this spring, it’s a Red Haven on Lovell. That’s a standard size tree that I plan to control with pruning. I planted an Elberta on dwarf stock that I bought at Lowe’s at my first house about 16 years ago and it was a great tree that is still alive to this day. At my wife’s house (when we were still dating) I planted another Elberta on semi-dwarf from Lowes that turned out to be a white fleshed nectarine(I can’t recommend Nects here, everything under the sun eats or damages them). I then planted a Dwarf Bonanza and a semidwarf Elberta from local nursery. The Bonanza just wasn’t a good peach but the tree is very pretty. The semi-dwarf Elberta got bacterial canker within 2-3 years and struggled from that point on. Then we had a freak polar air blast in September about 7 years where the temperature went from 70 to -12F in about 24 hours. It killed the vast majority of peach and cherry trees in Denver Metro area. I must have done well with site selection when I planted that dwarf Elberta because it made it!
I have met a handful of people in the last few years here with peach trees that they just grew from a pit, most are so-so. My neighbors pit grown tree made insipid peaches it’s first harvest but last year they were very good. That tree is a multitrunked unruly beast. She has no idea how to prune it and doesn’t follow offered advice.
So, basically I think you can probably go any way you want. They say that standards fair the dryness here the best, but if irrigated it doesn’t seem to matter. The biggest challenge really is just getting a tree that isn’t a standard if that’s what you want. Bacterial canker, early season aphids, and blossom killing frosts are our biggest challenges. Oh, and peach tree borers too!!!
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